X-raying Rubens' 'The Fur'
May 8 2015
Picture: Codart
One of the exhibits in the Rubenshuis Museum's excellent new exhibition, Rubens in Private is the portrait of Rubens' second wife known as 'The Fur'. It shows Helena Fourment on a plain background wrapped in a fur coat. But an x-ray of the painting shows that there was originally a fountain in the background. The Codart website gives further details on the fountain:
It was a two-level fountain and reached to Helena’s shoulders, with the base adorned with a lion’s head, water streaming from its mouth. Of particular note is the sculpture on the pedestal of the fountain, which is of a little boy urinating. These hidden elements gave the portrait an explicit erotic connotation and that is most probably the reason why they were overpainted in a later stage.
